BJP seems to be headed for a massive drubbing on the minority-dominated Okhla seat which includes Shaheen Bagh area, the epicentre of anti-CAA protests in the capital. Saffron party’s Brahm Singh was trailing by little less than 50 thousand votes against Aam Aadmi Party’s sitting MLA, Amanatullah Khan, after nine rounds of counting on Tuesday afternoon.
Amanatullah Khan had garnered 57,977 votes against Singh’s 8,934 votes. Congress candidate Parvez Hashmi was far behind with mere 2028 votes. Khan had won this seat in 2015 with over 64,000 votes.
The epicenter of Anti-CAA protests, Shaheen Bagh, was also the fulcrum of BJP’s campaign built around nationalism which was described as highly polarising by the party’s rivals.
Shaheen Bagh and Jamia Nagar, both part of Okhla constituency, shot into the spotlight for anti-CAA protests that turned violent on at least one occasion and led to the protestors blocking a major road connecting Delhi to Noida. Shaheen Bagh became a symbol inspiring several other copycat 24×7 protests across the country.
BJP had pitched the Delhi assembly elections as one between the forces supporting Shaheen Bagh protests and those opposing it. Two BJP leaders, UP CM Yogi Adityanath and Anurag Thakur were sanctioned by the election commission for referring to Shaheen Bagh protestors as anti-nationals during the campaign.
